1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a timer recorder having belt printing types, in which printing types formed particularly on an outer surface of an endless belt is used as a printing portion for printing time on a timer card.
2. Brief Description of the Invention
The conventional time recorders for printing time can be classified into two types. The first one is a mechanical type which uses, as a printing means, a printing wheel having hour-use printing types and minute-use printing types formed on its peripheral surface and a printing hammer. The other is an electronic type which uses, as a printing means, a printer such as, for example, a dot printer and thermal printer.
Among the two types of time recorders mentioned above, the electronic time recorder is widely used these days. This electronic timer recorder has a feature that printing speed is very fast because it employs a printer. In addition, it has such convenient features as memory means, tabulation means and the like. However, as it is provided with such a complicated apparatus as a microcomputer as its control unit, it is invevitable that the price becomes comparatively higth. This is the reason why mechanical type time recorders are still used in not a small number even at present.
However, the mechanical type time recorder using the printing wheel and a printing hammer has the following shortcoming. That is, the size of the printing wheel is difficult to be made small because it is restricted by the size and number of the hour-use printing types and minute-use printing types formed on its peripheral surface. As a consequence, the time recorder becomes inevitably large in size and heavy in weight as a whole because of the physical size of the printing wheel. Furthermore, it has such inconveniences as that the printing wheel is complicated to manufacture and the cost is high, and when the printing position is changed by moving the printing block with respect to a time card, a smooth movement is difficult to obtain due to the heavy weight of the printing wheel.
The present invention has been developed in order to overcome the above-mentioned problems.